$1M bail for man charged with selling drugs to Lathrop kid

LATHROP — Eric L. McKinney, 24, of Lathrop was charged with five felonies by sheriff’s deputies Tuesday in connection with a sale of drugs to a 12-year-old female student.

McKinney is being held at the San Joaquin County Jail in lieu of $1,090,000 bail. He was arrested without incident as he was walking in the 13000 block of Pipestone Street near his home.

He was charged with the willful harm or injury to a child, selling a controlled substance to a minor, being an adult preparing controlled substance for sale to a minor, falsely representing a drug to be a controlled substance and transportation and sale of a controlled substance at a school.

The case dates back to March 3 when Lathrop Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a call on Travertine Court where a 12-year-old girl had reportedly taken ecstasy pills that she purchased earlier in the day.

Deputies said the girl had purchased two ecstasy pills from someone she knew. The girl’s mother told officers the man who had sold the pills to her daughter was living on Pipestone Street in Lathrop.

The young girl believed she was buying ecstasy pills, and when she began feeling ill she told her mother. She was transported to San Joaquin County Hospital for observation. Deputies learned later that the girl had purchased approximately eight prescription medication pills from McKinney.

The follow-up investigation by officers revealed that the prescription drug sold to the girl was Glimepiride – a medication for diabetes.

Deputies served McKinney with a search warrant after his arrest on Tuesday that reportedly revealed additional medication consistent with the pills sold as ecstasy. McKinney also goes by the alias of Moniker Midnight.